THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE 227 



should find another tenth absokitely idle, usurping the larger 

 share of the products of this first labour ; and the remaining 

 seven-tenths condemned to a life of perpetual half-hunger, 

 ceaselessly exhausting themselves in strange and sterile efforts 

 whereby they never may profit, but only render more complex 

 and more inexplicable still the life of the idle. We should 

 conclude that the reason and moral sense of these beings must 

 belong to a world entirely different from our own, and that 

 they must obey principles hopelessly beyond our comprehension. 

 But let us carry this review of our faults no further. They are 

 always present in our thoughts, though their presence achieve 

 but little. From century to century only will one of them for 

 a moment shake off its slumber, and send forth a bewildered 

 cry ; stretch the aching arm that supported its head, shift its 

 position, and then lie down and fall asleep once more, until 

 a new pain, born of the dreary fatigue of repose, wake it afresh. 



115 

 The evolution of the Apiens, or at least of the Apitas, 

 being admitted, or regarded as more probable than that they 

 should have remained stationary, let us now consider the 

 general, constant direction that this evolution takes. It seems 

 to follow the same road as with ourselves. It tends palpably 

 to lessen the struggle, insecurity, and wretchedness of the race, 

 to augment authority and comfort, and stimulate favourable 

 chances. To this end it will unhesitatingly sacrifice the in- 

 dividual, bestowing general strength and happiness in exchange 

 for the illusory and mournful independence of solitude. It is as 

 though Nature were of the opinion with which Thucydides 



